Premier Manager 3

Premier Manager 3 is a football management video game that puts the player in charge of a football club. The player has to manage not only the team and tactics to win football matches but also the club's finances, such as applying for bank loans, organising advertising boards, and scheduling stadium improvements. The primary interface is made up of 12 main sections. These are team settings, telephone, fax machine, sponsorship, ground improvements, business case, club finances, transfer market, history, league tables, cup competitions, and the option to play the next match. From this interface, the player can access all the settings necessary to manage the football club.{{citation | title=Premier Manager 3 manual | author=Calpin, Martin | publisher=Gremlin Interactive | date=1994}}

Image:Premier Manager 3 game.gif

When the game starts, the user takes control of a Conference League team of their choice. If the user manages the team poorly and finishes in last position in the league, the team will not be relegated; in real life, a team finishing in the relegation zone would have gone down to what is now Level 7 in the English football league system at the time, although since 2004 two leagues were added between these leagues and the Conference National. To be successful, the user must not only win football matches, but also manage the finances of the club well. If the player is in too much debt then the player can be fired even if he had good results.

The user can change the club he manages by taking job offers from other clubs at the end of the season or applying for a position at a club where a manager has been fired mid season. The managerial rating of the user affects whether or not this application is successful. Premier Manager 3 can be played by two players, although they have to take turns accessing their teams. In a new feature to the series, the users can attempt to outbid each other. Previously in Premier Manager 2, the second user had the advantage of bidding after the first user.

In 1996, Premier Manager 3 Deluxe was released which included the updated league, team and player statistics for the 1995–96 football season.{{cite journal | title=Premier Manager 3 Deluxe CU Amiga review | date=April 1996 | publisher=EMAP | journal=CU Amiga | author=AD}}

The tactics system in Premier Manager 3 was the biggest new development in the game, allowing the user to set tactics for individual players during football matches.{{cite journal | title=Premier Manager 3 preview | journal=Amiga Computing | date=December 1994 | author=Maddock, Jonathan | publisher=Europress}} The team and player statistics were updated for the release to the 1995/96 football season. Premier Manager 3 was re-released again in April 2004 by the holders of the Premier Manager trademark Zoo Digital. It was released on CD ROM with the warning that it will not run on Windows 2000 or Windows XP operating systems.{{cite web | url=http://www.zoodigitalpublishing.com/product-item.php?id=157 | title=Premier Manager 3 on Zoo Digital Publishing | accessdate=2008-03-12}}

Critics received Premier Manager 3 well. Amiga Format rated the game 85% and observed that the game is difficult enough to challenge even experienced players of management sims.{{cite journal | title=Premier Manager 3 Amiga Format review | author=Bradley, Steve | publisher=Future Publishing | journal=Amiga Format | date=December 1994}} CU Amiga rated the game 85% and praised the game for the user friendly interface but also criticised how similar the interface and game in general was similar to Premier Manager 2.{{cite journal | title=Premier Manager 3 CU Amiga review | author=Broughton, Matt | date=January 1995 | journal=CU Amiga | publisher=EMAP}} The review from Amiga Computing gave the game its "Gold Award" and recommended readers purchase Premier Manager 3. The review also observed how similar the game is to Premier Manager 2, and suggested it may not be worth buying if the players already own the previous two games in the series.{{cite journal | title=Premier Manager 3 Amiga Computing review | author=Maddock, Jonathan | journal=Amiga Computing | publisher=Europress | date=December 1994}} Amiga User International magazine did not like Premier Manager 3. The review wrote that it is too similar to its predecessor and the improvements were minimal. The review also attacked the method of playing the game as flawed due to not being able to compare tactics against the opposing team's players.{{cite journal | title=Premier Manager 3 AUI review | date=February 2005 | publisher=AUI Limited | journal=Amiga User International}} The game was re-released as part of a budget set called Soccer Stars 96, which contained FIFA International Soccer, Kick Off 3, and On the Ball: League Edition. The collection received good reviews in general but it was observed that none of the games, including Premier Manager 3, were as good as more recent football games at the time.{{cite journal | title=Soccer Stars 96 Amiga Computing review | date=March 1996 | publisher=Europress | journal=Amiga Computing | author=Maddock, Andy}}

After the release of Premier Manager 3, Gremlin Interactive developed and released the Premier Multi-Edit System. This was separate software that would allow the user to edit statistics of teams, players, stadia, and other in game details. Players can be swapped from team to team, managers could be changed and the football strips altered. This was so the user could update the game as the seasons progressed. This was further emphasised with the subtitle of the software being "You'll never need another management game ... ever!"{{citation | title=Premier Manager 3 Multi-Edit System | date=1995 | publisher=Gremlin Interactive | author=Calpin, Martin}} As a stand-alone product, the Multi-Edit System was received well and received a rating of 86% from CU Amiga.{{cite journal | title=Premier Multi-Edit System CU Amiga review | publisher=EMAP | author=Skews, Rik | journal=CU Amiga | date=May 1995 | page=56}} The Multi-Edit System was bundled with the Premier Manager 3 Deluxe release in 1995.

{{Reflist|30em}}

• {{abime|id=1139}}
• {{moby game|id=/premier-manager-3}}
• {{cite web|url=https://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=871|title=Premier Manager 3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101010101/https://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=871|archive-date=2014-01-01|url-status=dead|website=AllGame}}

{{Premier Manager series}}

Category:1994 video games

Category:Amiga games

Category:Association football management video games

Category:DOS games

Category:Gremlin Interactive games

Category:Multiplayer and single-player video games

Category:Premier Manager

Category:Realms of Fantasy games

Category:Video games developed in the United Kingdom

Category:Video games scored by Patrick Phelan